Maspin is a member of the serpin family of protease inhibitors [1]. The
protein is expressed in normal mammary epithelial cells but not in most
mammary carcinoma cell lines. Analysis of human breast cancer specimens
has revealed that loss of maspin expression occurs most frequently in
advanced cancers, supporting the hypothesis that maspin functions as a
tumour suppressor [1].
MASPIN is a 9-element fingerprint that provides a signature for maspins.
The fingerprint was derived from an initial alignment of 3 sequences: the
motifs were drawn from short conserved regions spanning virtually the
full alignment length. A single iteration on OWL29.2 was required to
reach convergence, no further sequences being identified beyond the
starting set.
An update on SPTR37_9f identified a true set of 3 sequences.